this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024

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Scientist who gene-edited babies is back in lab and ‘proud’ of past work despite jailing (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/nottheonion

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[–] themeatbridge 30 points 8 months ago (2 children)

He said the three genome-edited children were “perfectly healthy and have no problems with their growth”, according to the newspaper, adding that the twins, now aged 5, were attending kindergarten.

This motherfucker is playing William Tell with baby genes and claiming it's safe because he didn't put an arrow into somebody's forehead. He won't even know if he hit the apple unless he exposes the children to HIV.

[–] LaterRedditor 22 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The more terrifying aspect is he might have hit the wrong targets.

[–] themeatbridge 26 points 8 months ago

And we might not know for generations.

[–] molten 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah but the babies also wouldn't have been born without him, had an HIV positive parent and he did a ton for crispr research. He was only disgraced 'disappeared' and jailed because PR was bad. He really didn't do anything too awful (I think he was too manipulative of the parents) but most of the media you see paints him like doctor fucking Mengele.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

He was criticized also because the girls were not in danger of becoming infected. See e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6724388/ :

The Chinese episode has also generated other issues. Several notes demonstrate that this was an experiment and not a therapeutic intervention (even He Jiankui called it a 'clinical trial'). The babies were not at risk of being born with HIV, given that sperm washing had been used so that only non-infected genetic material was used. Further, even though one of the parents (or both) was infected, it did not mean the children were more prone to becoming infected. The risk of becoming infected by the parents' virus was very low (Cowgill et al., 2008). In sum, there was no curative purpose, nor even the intention to prevent a pressing risk. Finally, the interventions were different for each twin. In one case, the two copies of CCR5 were modified, whereas in the other only one copy was modified. This meant that one twin could still become infected, although the evolution of the disease would probably be slower. The purpose of the scientific team was apparently to monitor the evolution of both babies and the differences in how they reacted to their different genetic modifications. This note also raised the issue of parents' informed consent regarding human experimentation, which follows a much stricter regimen than consent for therapeutic procedures.

Other critical articles (e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8524470/) have also cited in particular https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4779710/, which states in the result section:

No HIV transmission occurred in 11,585 cycles of assisted reproduction using washed semen among 3,994 women (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0–0.0001). Among the subset of HIV-infected men without plasma viral suppression at the time of semen washing, no HIV seroconversions occurred among 1,023 women following 2,863 cycles of assisted reproduction using washed semen (95%CI= 0–0.0006). Studies that measured HIV transmission to infants reported no cases of vertical transmission (0/1,026, 95% CI= 0–0.0029). Overall, 56.3% (2,357/4,184, 95%CI=54.8%–57.8%) of couples achieved a clinical pregnancy using washed semen.

[–] molten 6 points 8 months ago

Good info. You're absolutely right.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is terrifying. Obviously he's a smart guy, but he's incapable of seeing how unethical and risky this is.

Just because they were born and seem normal and healthy now that doesn't mean the gene therapy was successful. The kids may be lucky or just not showing symptoms of anything they are tracking.

He basically jumped out into traffic, didn't get hit by a car and said that made it okay.

[–] Delphia 6 points 8 months ago

I saw this before and I do wonder if by the time I'm an old bastard if this is the guy who proved that it can be done safely or just another monster who thought ethics didnt apply to him.

[–] Lommy241 13 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." Isaac Asimov

[–] isles 3 points 8 months ago

Or at least, what it thinks is knowledge. Medical history is littered with practices that maimed patients for no gain. We have frequently believed the wrong thing and to think that we no longer do is insanity. I frequently think about what procedures we do currently that will one day be considered evil (balloon angioplasty, maybe). There's a lot of dogma and perverse incentives in science. But maybe that just speaks to the wisdom part.

And I hope I don't come off as anti-science. I believe the scientific method is our best chance at understanding the world we're in.

[–] stanleytweedle 1 points 8 months ago

Also that the distilled knowledge and power of science and technology can be passed on through time and over distance in fairly simple writing, it grows and progresses with each human generation. But wisdom can only be gained through empathy and personal experience, it's effectively reset in every human being and cannot be passed on or learned through simple writing.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well its always been a matter of time before we start genetically modifying humans I guess he's just ahead of the times. But yeah incredibly risky if ya gonna genetically modify a human do it to yourself.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

if ya gonna genetically modify a human do it to yourself.

I'm sure it's a lot easier to modify a handful of cells and let them replicate than it is to modify millions of cells...

It was a terrible thing to do, but I get it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Lol, did you expect moral and ethical boundaries to be upheld by a state-sponsored chinese scientist in 2024? He's proud because he got paid fat by the regime.

[–] Thcdenton 1 points 8 months ago

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Gattaca vibes intensify